Real Estate Links and Programs

REAL ESTATE LINKS & PROGRAMS

HELPFUL PROGRAMS

Carleton Sheets' highly motivational program, the No Down Payment program is a sure-fire winner. Both my sister (who finally made time to read it - click here for our story) and I used some of the techniques in this program to help us get started. It’s an invaluable course and written in easy to understand language. It offers a wealth of practical information, tons of visual charts & diagrams and the best part is it does not conflict with my spiritual beliefs of “more to all, less to none.” An entire chapter is devoted to negotiating win/win deals where both the seller and buyer benefit from the sale. I still refer to it every now and then. I don’t know how much this course has changed since I took it in 1998, but I’m guessing it has only gotten better.

Dolf de Roos’ The Property Investor's School is not one that I have personally taken. Though I rarely recommend something I haven’t tried myself, I took his seminar on the same topic several years ago and found him to be motivational and knowledgeable and he took his time to explain his techniques in detail, ensuring that no one was lost or left behind. In all honesty, I did not purchase his program because I felt it didn’t cover anything that I hadn’t learned from Mr. Sheets’ program and he had shared so much information during the seminar, I needed time to process my notes & all the things I had just learned. With that said, I’m recommending it anyway because it still covers a wealth of valuable information from a proven master in Real Estate investing and if I hadn’t first taken the No Down Payment program, I would have taken this one without hesitation.

While Robert Kiyosaki’s book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad is not specifically about real estate investing, it offers a wonderful new way to look at money. I don’t quite agree with a couple of his tips (like always use cash over credit to buy anything) but his comparisons between the mentality of the rich vs. the mentality of the poor is a grand eye opener. When I first read his book years ago, I found myself in the “poor” mentality quite a bit. Now, when I reread it, I still find a couple of “Poor Dad” thoughts in my thinking but not as much (perhaps that is why I still disagree with a few of his tips, maybe I’m just not “there” yet). He also says owning a house you live in is a liability, not an asset, even if your mortgage is paid off. I see his point, but I strongly disagree. Aside from these disagreements, I recommend his book wholeheartedly! I have read Rich Dad, Poor Dad and CASHFLOW Quadrant and have benefited greatly from his advice. He also has a Real Estate investing book as well as a book about how to turn bad debt into good debt. I have yet to read that one, but have ordered it and will let you know what I think. It seems to go along with my standpoint that credit cards CAN help if you know how to use them wisely. See A Word About Credit Cards for my notes about credit card debt.

HELPFUL LINKS

There are many government programs & grants (free money you do not have to pay back) that can assist you in your real estate goals. I've listed some sites below that not only have grants for homeownership, but also have various grants for starting your own business, going to school, and even writing a book. Check them out and be sure to follow their links to other sites that offer state & federal programs.

www.cfda.gov (The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance) By far my favorite! I paid a company $30 to find this site. They were offering an exclusive “Free Money from Government Grants” program that consisted of software for $30 and I bought it. All the “software” did was point me to this website with a few modifications on their end to make it look like their “exclusive” software. I almost requested a refund, but after browsing through the site, I decided that the $30 spent was well worth it for the information just to get to the site. I had performed searches for grants on the internet before but had never come across this site. If someone had said, “give me $30 and I’ll tell you where to go to find free money” I would’ve paid it too. So to save you from being suckered into $30, here is the site for FREE!

www.firstgov.gov (The US Government’s Official Web Portal) Click on “Benefits & Grants” to get to their grants page. Also includes practical info for renewing your passport, driver’s license, tax info, etc. Click on their “Shop Government Auctions” for Real Estate auctions, surplus and foreclosures. You can even search by city and state.

www.pueblo.gsa.gov (Federal Citizen Information Center) An absolute WEALTH of information for consumers and citizens. Click on any of the links under their “Books” section to find free e-books and pamphlets on Housing, Money, Federal Programs and more.

www.fool.com (An invaluable all around investing-based website) Full of valuable tips, news and information on investing in stocks, funds, real estate, etc. Click on their "Home Buying" link under "Personal Finance" to get to their Real Estate section.

www.thecreativeinvestor.com (The largest online real estate investing community) They have tons of articles, tips and advice on investing in real estate. Visit their “Forums” to learn more about investing, tax & legal advice, rehabbing, etc. I’ve never browsed their property listings or bought any of their products, so I can’t speak to them personally. I have really only used this site to increase my knowledge about real estate. If you ever have a question, search the Forums and I’m positive you’ll be able to find your answer. If no one before you has posted the question, you can post it yourself. It used to be that you didn’t have to register in order to read the posts, only to ask questions. Now it seems they require registration even to read them. But registration is FREE and their Law & Legal Forum is well worth the couple of minutes it takes to register!

www.bid4assets.com (An online auction forum similar to eBay but specializing in tax defaulted land & personal property). Includes federal, state & county sales as well as private auctions. No fee is required to bid, but you have to sign up for a membership (free). Be wary and READ ALL THE FINE PRINT thoroughly before bidding. Some auctions are for the down payment only, which means your final bid price is for the down payment and you will have to pay more to acquire the property. Also, I HIGHLY recommend physically going to LOOK at the property BEFORE you bid on it or decide to buy it. I found a neighboring county’s tax sale on here and made a list of properties I wanted to view. The community was 2 hours away and I spent a weekend looking at all the properties in the area that they had listed. Some were in prime locations, some were land locked (which means you have to go through someone else’s property to get to it), and some were on unbuildable lots (too sloped, big waste drain running through it, no electricity, sewer or water access, no building permitted, etc.)

www.governmentlandauction.com (An online auction forum specializing in land/property auctions from Cities, Counties, States, Bankruptcies, IRS, Estates, Liens, Attorneys, Trusts, and Foreclosures throughout the U.S.) While I don't recommend this site to purchase property from, I'm listing it here to give you an idea of what is out there, and how different sites operate. This site holds legitimate auctions but charge inflated fees and interest rates. They not only sell the property, they also provide funding for "No Qualifying and No Credit Check." Any Joe Blow can buy their property, regardless of his credit history, available funds, or employment status. They charge a processing fee ($99) as well as a monthly collection fee ($6) for those buying on loan through them. It may be a viable alternative for those having a hard time getting a loan or don't have funds to pay cash up front. When you consider the closing costs of a typical lender in a typical real estate transaction, $99 doesn't seem so bad, does it? But take into consideration your long-term costs vs. your short-term needs. Their interest rate is pretty inflated (currently at 9.5%) when the current prime index is at 5.25%. Even with horrible credit, you can easily get a loan for 8% interest (as of 3/05), at most, depending on the lender. Also, like the site listed above, some of their auctions are "bid and assume" which means you are bidding on the down payment only and will pay more to "assume" the property. As always, do your homework and pay attention to all the fine print.

See A Caution About Real Estate Auctions

More links added periodically. Please check back again.

If you found this page without following links and want to read more about getting started in Real Estate,click here.

If you're interested in Owner/Builder info, click here for my O/B blog.

Read our Owner/Builder Real Estate Blog

Click here for FREE info
to help you get started
in Real Estate!

Inspire A Friend Inspire Me Pro-Privacy Pledge About/Contact


	REAL ESTATE LINKS & PROGRAMS
	HELPFUL PROGRAMS Carleton Sheets' highly motivational program, the No Down Payment program is a sure-fire winner. Both my sister (who finally made time to read it - click here for our story) and I used some of the techniques in this program to help us get started. It’s an invaluable course and written in easy to understand language. It offers a wealth of practical information, tons of visual charts & diagrams and the best part is it does not conflict with my spiritual beliefs of “more to all, less to none.” An entire chapter is devoted to negotiating win/win deals where both the seller and buyer benefit from the sale. I still refer to it every now and then. I don’t know how much this course has changed since I took it in 1998, but I’m guessing it has only gotten better. Dolf de Roos’ The Property Investor's School is not one that I have personally taken. Though I rarely recommend something I haven’t tried myself, I took his seminar on the same topic several years ago and found him to be motivational and knowledgeable and he took his time to explain his techniques in detail, ensuring that no one was lost or left behind. In all honesty, I did not purchase his program because I felt it didn’t cover anything that I hadn’t learned from Mr. Sheets’ program and he had shared so much information during the seminar, I needed time to process my notes & all the things I had just learned. With that said, I’m recommending it anyway because it still covers a wealth of valuable information from a proven master in Real Estate investing and if I hadn’t first taken the No Down Payment program, I would have taken this one without hesitation. While Robert Kiyosaki’s book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad is not specifically about real estate investing, it offers a wonderful new way to look at money. I don’t quite agree with a couple of his tips (like always use cash over credit to buy anything) but his comparisons between the mentality of the rich vs. the mentality of the poor is a grand eye opener. When I first read his book years ago, I found myself in the “poor” mentality quite a bit. Now, when I reread it, I still find a couple of “Poor Dad” thoughts in my thinking but not as much (perhaps that is why I still disagree with a few of his tips, maybe I’m just not “there” yet). He also says owning a house you live in is a liability, not an asset, even if your mortgage is paid off. I see his point, but I strongly disagree. Aside from these disagreements, I recommend his book wholeheartedly! I have read Rich Dad, Poor Dad and CASHFLOW Quadrant and have benefited greatly from his advice. He also has a Real Estate investing book as well as a book about how to turn bad debt into good debt. I have yet to read that one, but have ordered it and will let you know what I think. It seems to go along with my standpoint that credit cards CAN help if you know how to use them wisely. See A Word About Credit Cards for my notes about credit card debt. HELPFUL LINKS There are many government programs & grants (free money you do not have to pay back) that can assist you in your real estate goals. I've listed some sites below that not only have grants for homeownership, but also have various grants for starting your own business, going to school, and even writing a book. Check them out and be sure to follow their links to other sites that offer state & federal programs. www.cfda.gov (The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance) By far my favorite! I paid a company $30 to find this site. They were offering an exclusive “Free Money from Government Grants” program that consisted of software for $30 and I bought it. All the “software” did was point me to this website with a few modifications on their end to make it look like their “exclusive” software. I almost requested a refund, but after browsing through the site, I decided that the $30 spent was well worth it for the information just to get to the site. I had performed searches for grants on the internet before but had never come across this site. If someone had said, “give me $30 and I’ll tell you where to go to find free money” I would’ve paid it too. So to save you from being suckered into $30, here is the site for FREE! www.firstgov.gov (The US Government’s Official Web Portal) Click on “Benefits & Grants” to get to their grants page. Also includes practical info for renewing your passport, driver’s license, tax info, etc. Click on their “Shop Government Auctions” for Real Estate auctions, surplus and foreclosures. You can even search by city and state. www.pueblo.gsa.gov (Federal Citizen Information Center) An absolute WEALTH of information for consumers and citizens. Click on any of the links under their “Books” section to find free e-books and pamphlets on Housing, Money, Federal Programs and more. www.fool.com (An invaluable all around investing-based website) Full of valuable tips, news and information on investing in stocks, funds, real estate, etc. Click on their "Home Buying" link under "Personal Finance" to get to their Real Estate section. www.thecreativeinvestor.com (The largest online real estate investing community) They have tons of articles, tips and advice on investing in real estate. Visit their “Forums” to learn more about investing, tax & legal advice, rehabbing, etc. I’ve never browsed their property listings or bought any of their products, so I can’t speak to them personally. I have really only used this site to increase my knowledge about real estate. If you ever have a question, search the Forums and I’m positive you’ll be able to find your answer. If no one before you has posted the question, you can post it yourself. It used to be that you didn’t have to register in order to read the posts, only to ask questions. Now it seems they require registration even to read them. But registration is FREE and their Law & Legal Forum is well worth the couple of minutes it takes to register! www.bid4assets.com (An online auction forum similar to eBay but specializing in tax defaulted land & personal property). Includes federal, state & county sales as well as private auctions. No fee is required to bid, but you have to sign up for a membership (free). Be wary and READ ALL THE FINE PRINT thoroughly before bidding. Some auctions are for the down payment only, which means your final bid price is for the down payment and you will have to pay more to acquire the property. Also, I HIGHLY recommend physically going to LOOK at the property BEFORE you bid on it or decide to buy it. I found a neighboring county’s tax sale on here and made a list of properties I wanted to view. The community was 2 hours away and I spent a weekend looking at all the properties in the area that they had listed. Some were in prime locations, some were land locked (which means you have to go through someone else’s property to get to it), and some were on unbuildable lots (too sloped, big waste drain running through it, no electricity, sewer or water access, no building permitted, etc.) www.governmentlandauction.com (An online auction forum specializing in land/property auctions from Cities, Counties, States, Bankruptcies, IRS, Estates, Liens, Attorneys, Trusts, and Foreclosures throughout the U.S.) While I don't recommend this site to purchase property from, I'm listing it here to give you an idea of what is out there, and how different sites operate. This site holds legitimate auctions but charge inflated fees and interest rates. They not only sell the property, they also provide funding for "No Qualifying and No Credit Check." Any Joe Blow can buy their property, regardless of his credit history, available funds, or employment status. They charge a processing fee ($99) as well as a monthly collection fee ($6) for those buying on loan through them. It may be a viable alternative for those having a hard time getting a loan or don't have funds to pay cash up front. When you consider the closing costs of a typical lender in a typical real estate transaction, $99 doesn't seem so bad, does it? But take into consideration your long-term costs vs. your short-term needs. Their interest rate is pretty inflated (currently at 9.5%) when the current prime index is at 5.25%. Even with horrible credit, you can easily get a loan for 8% interest (as of 3/05), at most, depending on the lender. Also, like the site listed above, some of their auctions are "bid and assume" which means you are bidding on the down payment only and will pay more to "assume" the property. As always, do your homework and pay attention to all the fine print. See A Caution About Real Estate Auctions More links added periodically. Please check back again. If you found this page without following links and want to read more about getting started in Real Estate,click here. If you're interested in Owner/Builder info, click here for my O/B blog.	Read our Owner/Builder Real Estate Blog Click here for FREE info to help you get started in Real Estate!
	Inspire A Friend Inspire Me Pro-Privacy Pledge About/Contact